[Are there any games you guys play over and over again?]

SMRPG forever.

Also, SMW, DKC 1/2 and Pokemans (R/B/Y and G/S/C only).

[Core 2 Duo T5550 1.83GHz...passable?]

That is hands down the catchiest song for a movie trailer. Ever.

[Core 2 Duo T5550 1.83GHz...passable?]

Thanks for all the advice!

It all comes down to the VSTs.

I use FLStudio w/ Imageline VSTs, Kontakt as well whenever I need to. I am not opposed to switching DAWs if need be.

However, laptop processors are usually underpowered (in my experience)

I know laptop CPUs are relatively weak in comparison to a desktop rig, but I'll take what I can get.

plus your audio drivers tend to be worse, due to onboard sound, so unless you're using an external interface you should expect diminished performance.

and the quality of the ASIO drivers. Do not use the on-board soundcard, get yourself something decent.

Not planning on using onboard audio...any PCMCIA cards you'd recommend? I've got a $200 budget.

[Core 2 Duo T5550 1.83GHz...passable?]

I'm getting a new laptop soon and wanted to make sure it could run a DAW and not drop the ball when I add more than 15 tracks (Pentium 4s are bad about that). I heard Core 2 Duos were pretty good about getting the job done, but the one I'm looking at only clocks at 1.83GHz...will that still be decent?

[Mario Kart 64 Ending theme]

Wow...this is really good. I'm not much for ending themes, but you've done a good job with this one. The soft piano works really well, doesn't really overpower any of the other instruments. Kudos!

[Remix using only SSBX samples...]

I was looking for a site with NES sound rips for a project I'm doing and happened to stumble upon a .rar file containing all of Luigi's SFX ripped straight from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Long story short, I'm working on a mix of various themes from games Luigi has starred in (chiefly Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Bros., maybe Mario Kart?) using only the samples ripped from SSBX. I've compiled a mere 24-second snippet (about ringtone-size) with a bit of the Luigi's Mansion part not necessarily for review but just to see if people are receptive to the general idea (since it is very raw and uncompressed, though constructive criticism/ideas are welcome).

24sec is a bit short, so I'll try to get more up, but I've got loads of other stuff to get done at the moment.

Link to the file: http://www.box.net/shared/x3xgfirggo

Thanks!